Originally posted by The GoonI'm not up on sports gambling, so help me out here. Is what they've done illegal? Is it okay to bet on football games? What constitutes a gambling "ring"?

Well, I don't think anything's illegal, if the bets were placed legally (i.e. Las Vegas). That's not what this sounds like. I'm pretty sure that Nevada is the only state in the union where bettings on sports is legal. I could be wrong (horse racing is the exception in most cases).

When I hear "gambling ring", I think of somebody's who doing their own book. That's illegal.

EDIT: Reading further, it looks like they just made bets illegally with some bad people. Some have said that Tocchet and co. are involved with the Bruno/Scarfo crime ring, which would make sense, as Tocchet probably met somebody from there when he was in Philly. So Tocchet and his buddies made sports bets (not hockey) with bookies. Hell, I know a lot of people who do that on a regular basis. Of course, none of them are pro sports starts who might have a conflict of interest.

Tocchet will apparently be heading to New Jersey to answer a criminal complaint he has been presented with, alleging money laundering, conspiracy, and promoting gambling.

The article makes a point to say that none of the NHL players who may be involved (and none are yet named, aside from Tocchet) bet on hockey. According to the NHL, the only rule on gambling is that there is no betting on hockey.

As far as the NHL goes, I'd figure they're in the clear, as long as there was no bets placed on hockey by any player, and no evidence comes out of players trying to throw games to work off debts or something. Still, it's lousy, lousy publicity.

Originally posted by kwik According to the NHL, the only rule on gambling is that there is no betting on hockey.

As far as the NHL goes, I'd figure they're in the clear, as long as there was no bets placed on hockey by any player, and no evidence comes out of players trying to throw games to work off debts or something. Still, it's lousy, lousy publicity.

I wouldn't feel so safe just hanging my hat on "everything's okay as long as we didn't bet on hockey." The teams themselves may have language in the contracts that can allow them to take measures if people have engaged in conduct that may be considered detrimental to the organization. Taking part in and/or financing a criminal gambling enterprise could certainly fall into that category. If anyone is convicted on the charges listed they'll be anything but in the clear.

The only ways that any players could be convicted on any charges here would be if they involved hockey games, if they threw hockey games (although it would be difficult to prove that) or if they not only bet, but also went out and recruited other people to join the gambling.

Just placing bets isn't enough to bring criminal charges against any of them, and as such the New Jersey prosecutors have said they're not going to pursue any players who just bet.

That's why this story is bugging me. Instead of actually TELLING the story, the entire media is too busy trying to see who can print the "bigger" name to go along with it. "Oh, you're guessing Janet Gretzky? Well, we're guessing Jeremy Roenick! Beat THAT!"